Cartoonist and free speech activist Aseem Trivedi was set to pick up an award for his hard-hitting cartoons in Washington D.C. this week. But his trip was abruptly canceled after a Mumbai court found the same cartoons “offensive” and issued a warrant for his detention.

“My cartoons did nothing but tell the truth,” Mr. Trivedi told India Real Time on Friday after he heard of the court order. He voluntarily surrendered to police on Saturday and has been unreachable since.

A local court accused Mr. Trivedi of sedition over cartoons that appear to mock the Indian state. The cartoons were on display at an anti-corruption rally last December in Mumbai.

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The cartoons refer to the Indian constitution and include a sketch inspired by India’s national emblem that replaces the four lions with blood-hungry wolves, and the inscription “Satyamev Jayate” (truth alone prevails) with “Bhrashtamev Jayate” (corruption alone prevails).

Other controversial cartoons at the rally included one that shows an Indian politician and a bureaucrat assaulting a woman draped in a sari bearing the Indian tricolor, and a drawing of building that looks like the Indian Parliament labeled “National Toilet.”

A Mumbai-based law student, Amit Katarnavea, complained to a court against the cartoons, saying they are derogatory to India’s constitution.

Mr. Trivedi’s detention sparked outrage among many in India. Markandey Katju, head of the Press Council of India, the country’s main media self-regulatory body, spoke out strongly against Mr. Trivedi’s detention, arguing it is illegal.

“In fact arresting a cartoonist or any other person who has not committed a crime is itself a crime under the Indian Penal Code called wrongful arrest and wrongful confinement,” Mr. Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, wrote on his blog on Monday.

He went as far as comparing police following the court order with Nazi officials “obeying the orders of their political superior Hitler.”

Twitter, too, was ablaze with comments. “What was so different with Aseem Trivedi? He said thru cartoons what many others say about governance or lack of it in columns every day,” historian Irfan Habib wrote on Twitter.

Indian government officials, while saying they support freedom of expression, have spoken in favor of greater restrictions on online content.

Speaking at an event organized by Cambridge University in New Delhi on Monday, Kapil Sibal, India’s telecom minister, again warned against the dangers of unregulated Internet content.

“The net is now being used as a platform for spreading misinformation. It is being used for selling spurious drugs, it is being used for terrorist activities,” said Mr. Sibal. “So you have a new medium out there –it’s a great medium for empowerment— but it has the potential of being misused,” he added.

Last month, the Indian government complained that social media websites were slow to remove content deemed “inflammatory and hateful,” saying they were to blame for adding to communal tensions between India’s northeastern communities and Muslims.

A spokesman for India’s Ministry of Communications and IT declined to comment on Mr. Trivedi’s detention, saying that “the government has nothing to do with this,” since it is a matter that is being handled by the judiciary.

Police officials say that Mr. Trivedi will remain in custody at least until Sept. 16, when a local Mumbai court is scheduled to hear his bail petition.

This is not the first time Mr. Trivedi gets into trouble with Indian authorities. Last year, his anti-corruption website www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.com was suspended over similar allegations.

In a separate incident earlier this year, a university professor was briefly detained earlier in West Bengal after he circulated via email a cartoon that poked fun at the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.